The digital age, birthed by modernity, tends towards the virtual.
So many of the activities, relationships, trends and tools modern man engages in are now native to the virtual world. Where once we turned up at a friend’s house to discuss an issue, today messages suffice. Ordering food, buying clothes and even gaming, all are now predominantly virtual activities for many.
In such a world, grounding ourselves to the physical aspects of reality serve to inoculate us against many of the delusions we increasingly find ourselves in.
Weightlifting is one such grounding method, and it works exceptionally well.
As its name suggests, weightlifting is nothing but the fundamental motion of lifting and lowering heavy weights. There are variations to the individual exercises that allow us to define which muscles are targeted, but the core idea is the same, and it is this motion of lifting and moving something physical which offers to play such an important role in our lives today.
When you exert effort in such a manner, you come up against your hard, physical limits and are faced with the reality that there is a level beyond which you cannot proceed. We thus engage with material reality in a way that is blunt, cold but ultimately truthful.
The cold, heavy iron does not lie.
In the virtual world however, we can achieve almost anything.
Boundaries are constantly redrawn and blurred. What was impossible yesterday can become the default experience tomorrow. As enticing as it may seem, such a world will, at its core, forever feel unnatural and uncanny to us. So many finish their workday by turning off their screens only to feel their sense of accomplishment disappear with it. The things we build, configure and document in the virtual world very often have no physical manifestation. Their meaning and existence is entirely dependent on how much is arbitrarily assigned to them.
Abstracting existence often means abstracting meaning with it.
Weightlifting on the other hand tangibly links actions and results. Not only the results of the work on your body, but even the simple understanding that picking up and moving an object physically moves matter around. As obvious as this conclusion seems, it reinforces the essential nature of reality, one that we can so easily overlook in our time.
Abstraction has no place in the gym. The moved object is exactly where you placed it and will remain there evermore until it is moved again. We interact with the universe and the universe responds. The laws of physics react to our interferences. It is this fundamental reality that we expose ourselves to when engaging in physical work, and it is the one most suited to our nature.
We are, after all, physical beings living in a material world, within a material universe.
We fundamentally respect and seek boundaries. We may seem to push ever forward against them, but knowing they are there and struggling against them provides us with a deep well of meaning that has always served us well. Is it any wonder then, that those who engage in physical professions are often more satisfied with the results of their labour than those who do not?
Let there be no misunderstanding, the virtual world has both its value and place. Man is a physical being but he is also one who thinks and dreams in non-physical realities. This immaterial reality contributes to our material success in many ways. But without the grounding of material reality to keep us steadfast, we risk losing sight of what matters most to us and becoming unmoored from what we truly value.
We are inherently inclined to the physical world around us – and all our ambitions, dreams and aspirations must take it into account. Attempts to ‘transcend’ this reality to live in an increasingly virtual manner will bear only the most rotten fruit. In truth, we will have not transcended the material world, only abandoned it – and yet, it is the ever-present foundation for any adventure in the immaterial, abstract world we desire.
We would do well to nurture and remember our connection to the world by grounding ourselves in its physical realities. Though cameras allow us to zoom in with great detail on objects 200 meters away, our eyes limit us to what lies before us. It is these limitations that we must honour and acknowledge, even if we develop ways to go beyond them, for they are not weaknesses, but refinements. Man has within him the God-given indomitable spirit of conquest, but it is only by correctly honouring our material reality that we can wield this sword gracefully.
In the modern age, this is a truth we must strive to learn and relearn.
Weightlifting is an effective tool for this end.